


shaky foundations

by perhapssoon



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Cryptor is trauma, F/M, Gen, Not rlly much of a difference from the original, Vomit Mention, blood mention, flipped au, oh well, this is a bit confusing, well I guess Cryptor isn’t completely human
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-22
Updated: 2018-07-25
Packaged: 2019-06-14 18:14:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15394542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perhapssoon/pseuds/perhapssoon
Summary: They were going to fail. That was a given. Cryptor just didn’t know how terribly they would.Or: the Ninjago AU where Zane, Cryptor, Pixal, and Echo Zane are the only humans left in Ninjago.





	1. metal

**Author's Note:**

> Random idea in the middle of finals turned into reality. Enjoy.

Fifteen years.  Fifteen long, disappointing years of not knowing he was related to the only other humans on this stupid planet. Fifteen years of not even knowing he was human. And it took him four more years to actually be able to trust his biological family. Or what is left of it anyway.

He has two older brothers. He doesn’t know which one is the eldest, and he doesn’t care. Zane and Echo. Both names sounding like code words for some secret government organization and both of them way too nice. 

He hates them. 

There’s a girl too. Zane’s girlfriend. Pixal. He supposes that as the youngest brother, he’s supposed to hate anyone his brothers bring home as well. So he does. 

He hates all of them. 

~~No he doesn’t.~~

Cryptor slams his fist into the window, watching the glass crack and splinter away from the point of impact. A jolt of pain runs up his arm, making it go numb. He supposed that being human is better than pretending to be a robot, even if it means experiencing pain. Humans are better, even if it comes with strange bodily fluids and overwhelming emotions. 

~~Maybe he thinks that way because he’s trying to make everything seem better than it actually is.~~

He sometimes wonders if he was better off without any of that. Especially the emotions. 

Slowly, he pulls his hand away from the window, studying his bleeding knuckles and the imprint they made on the glass. He has more strength than he needs; it was a mistake in the programming—No. Not the programming. Even four years of rehabilitation isn’t enough to rectify the mistake he’s been making for nearly his entire life. 

He’s not a robot. He’s a human. 

~~A sorry excuse for a human anyway.~~

The ninja — all of them called nindroids except for Zane — are nice enough, even after he tried to dismantle them. There’s still that layer of tension whenever he’s alone with a member of the team, but it’s died down as he hadn’t tried to attack them for years. 

Not that he wants to anyway. Humans are more fragile than robots; their bones snap far too easily, cuts can be made far too deep, and they can’t be put back together. 

He would throw himself off the nearest cliff for being so vulnerable if he wasn’t one of the four remaining humans left in Ninjago. 

~~And how would that make his brothers feel?~~

The wind picks up and Cryptor shivers in the sudden temperature drop, which he can feel even through his thick black clothes, hood, and goggles. 

The nindroids’ leader — what did they call him — Sensei Wu, requires the four humans to cover themselves up as much as possible to avoid being spotted as humans. Nya, the Elemental Master Of Water and one of the nindroids, created anklets to block their heat signature, as many of the android citizens possessed heat sensors. Any human that had made contact with the wrong side — and most — of Ninjago disappeared, hence the reason Cryptor was brought up believing he himself was an android and why there were only four humans left in existence.

Footsteps approach him and he spins around, ready to defend himself, but it turns out to just be Zane. 

“Pixal needs to look at that eye of yours,” the eldest brother says, eyes darting to the broken window beside his brother. “She thinks she can fix it.”

“Pixal thinks a lot of things,” Cryptor retorts and Zane winces slightly at the subtle insult. 

“Well this time, I think this will help you, especially considering your, um, past.”

It was Zane’s nice way of saying that Cryptor’s past is rather messed up. 

~~And it is.~~

In a recent battle with a group of androids that called themselves The Crystal, Cryptor had managed to secure the wristband the nindroids needed for their mission. Unfortunately, it also made him a target for the enemy androids as they were all linked to the band. He ended up with half of his face quite literally blasted off, and only survived because they had some healing tea left over from the Dark Ages. His eye didn’t grow back, and Pixal, who is an expert engineer, was experimenting with ways to help him see again. So far, none of her attempts had worked and Cryptor wasn’t entirely comfortable with her trying to fit a strange contraption on his face. 

~~Or maybe he was hoping she would mess up even more.~~

“What do you mean?” he asks and Zane shrugs. 

“Ask her when you get there. I have to help Kai with patrol.”

Cryptor huffs in annoyance and turns to go to base. 

—

Pixal is waiting for him in her room and he has to, as always, step over the various mechanical pieces littering the ground. 

“So,” she starts, “I’ve been working on this as a backup for one of the nindroids, but I modified it to work for you as well.”

That didn’t sound strange at all. 

Pixal holds up some strange object made of metal. It has a thin red disk connected by two thick strips of metal that loop backwards in a semicircle. “This will help you with your eye.”

Cryptor studies the piece. It looks strange and he’s reluctant to have that thing embedded into his head.  “Won’t you have to surgically wire it into my brain?” he asks and Pixal nods, looking slightly guilty. 

“It will only take two hours. I promise.”

The thought of being unconscious for at least an hour with Pixal tinkering with his actual brain makes him want to leave the room. 

But, as usual, he has an image to upkeep. 

“Fine,” he grumbles. “Are you doing it now?”

“Yes, unless you want to wait. Then, the operation has a higher possibility of being disrupted.” Pixal turns to rummage around in her work desk and pulls out something that looks suspiciously like a spray can. "And I'm sorry about this."

Cryptor registers that it's knock out gas right as she sprays him in the face with it.

—

He wakes up, and is promptly hit with a wave of pain and nausea that nearly causes him to black out again.  He can hear Pixal in the room as well, rattling through things that sound like metal.

What happened? There was knock out gas, some metal device, and his eye.

_His eye._

He opens his eyes and finds that he can see out of both, the red disk substituting for his right eye tinting the room in crimson. Pixal had succeeded.

He attempts to sit up, stomach lurching as he does so and nearly falls off the table he was laying on.  Pixal looks up as he painstakingly pushes himself into a sitting position and comes over to him.

"Are you okay?" she asks.

~~He feels like throwing up.~~

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"You can see?" It sounds more like a statement than a question but Cryptor is too disoriented to really care.

"Yeah."

"Okay, good."

And she goes back to her work, leaving him to stagger out of her room.

—

When Zane comes back from patrol, he lets Cole and Lloyd know it's their turn to scout and wanders back out into the streets.

He likes the snow, even if it makes him freezing cold.  Here, he's in his element. It unnerves him that all of the other Elemental Masters are androids, but he supposes there's a first time for everything.

He finds his brother emptying the contents of his stomach into a nearby garbage can in a deserted alleyway almost five minutes later.

"Cryptor," he says, and the younger teen jerks upright, eyes wide.  It's rare to see him like this: without any emotional guards. When Zane walks over to him, Cryptor slams the lid shut and recomposes his face into a neutral expression.

"What do you want?"

Now that he was certain his brother wasn't in any immediate danger, Zane has more time to notice that Cryptor now has an artificial eye, most likely courtesy of Pixal.

"Nothing; I was just checking on you," Zane replies and Cryptor snorts.

"Why? You don't need to look after me."

Zane just shakes his head and walks away.  "You're impossible."

~~Sometimes, I wish you weren't.~~


	2. drive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> eye games and weird fighting in the dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is bit of a filler chapter.

She needs a raise.  Nindroids -- and their human coworkers -- don't get paid for very obvious reasons.  Saving the world isn't something you do for money.

But some of the things she puts up with are things she really wishes she could have some kind of reward for doing so. 

~~Cryptor is one reason.~~

But she supposes that being with Zane is enough of a reward, especially when they have some alone time off of saving Ninjago.

So it’s three in the morning and she’s curled up at his side, both of them watching the news report for the previous day. 

“The Crystal is on the rise,” Zane says out of nowhere. “Apparently that wristband we stole and Kai destroyed last week isn’t the thing holding them together. Their programming is too strong for that.”

“So you’re saying we need to destroy yet another item in their base?” Pixal sits up. “Did the wristband do _anything_?”

Her tone is a bit harsh, so she softens it. “Did it at least weaken them?”

Zane shrugs. “As far as I know, it caused them to disband for a while, which was why patrol was so quiet these past few weeks. So maybe it did something. Nya is working on it.”

“And Echo?”

“Still with Jay. I think they found a crack in the back entrance of The Crystal’s defenses but I’m not sure. We lost contact with them yesterday.”

Zane looks worried for his brother and his friend and Pixal takes his hand. “Zane, they’ll be fine. Both of them are excellent fighters.”

“Echo’s injuries may reopen,” Zane says, squeezing Pixal’s hand in response. “But it was his choice to go so I’ll honor that.”

“A true gentleman,” she says jokingly and he rolls his eyes. 

"How did that implant thing go?" 

She winces. "Well enough, I suppose.  I had to knock him out otherwise I think he would've tried to resist me."

Zane nods slowly. "Well, I found him vomiting his entire ration of food afterwards."

"He said he was fine," Pixal says guiltily, noticing the look Zane gives her.

"I guess that if he said he was fine then it's fine you let him go," Zane muses, and Pixal can see the reflection of the TV screen in his electric blue eyes.

"Where is he anyway?"

Zane shrugs.  "I have no idea. I let him be. It's best if you leave him to sort out his problems on his own.  I've learned that the hard way."

She doesn't know what he's talking about.

~~She won't want to.~~

“How long do we have until The Crystal is back at full capacity?”

She can feel his arm snake around her like he’s trying to protect her from the prospect itself. “A week at most. We need to start training again.”

She blinks. Everyone who has allied with the nindroids (mostly everyone) has already learned how to defend themselves, though their specific styles and offensive attacks haven’t really been refined. “And you’re the instructor?”

Zane shakes his head. “Kai is doing it. I don’t think he is the best choice but Lloyd agreed. Kai is more specialized in his offensive attacks, mostly because fire is his outlet for anger. Our offense is rather...rusty.”

She doesn’t say anything to that, mostly because she knows she hasn’t truly fought in weeks. She remembers how to wield a sword, yes, as well as work her mech and other various weapons but it isn’t good enough to fight The Crystal. 

~~It's never good enough.~~

“You’re planning on letting _Kai_ train Cryptor as well?” Pixal asks, allowing a slight tone of disbelief to seep into her voice. “Those two encourage each other’s temper more than quash it.”

“We don’t have a choice,” Zane says. “None of the other ninja want to train anyone and they made me back down because of what happened last time with the water bucket and motorcycle.”

Pixal remembers. It involved Cryptor completely destroying Zane in mock creative combat and shoving a water bucket on his brother’s head and forcing him to drive a motorcycle. It also involved quite a bit of red spray paint. No one could ever unsee that. 

She opens her mouth to reply but he pulls her into him and she relaxes against him despite her best efforts. 

“But it doesn’t matter now,” Zane murmurs into her hair. “Because right now, being here with you is all that matters.”

—

Being alone in the dark is something Cryptor’s gotten used to over the years. He had never really had anybody to rely on or to help, not even his adoptive android family, so he had been forced to become a loner.

It is nice to have others watching his back for a change, but sometimes it aggravates him.  The ninja have no knowledge of personal space.

Actually, that's an understatement.

As if on cue, there's a familiar creaking sound that comes from behind him.  He doesn't even have to turn around to know who it is.

"Nya."

"Hey."

He wasn't the best of friends with the Master of Water, but they at least are on speaking terms, unlike him and her brother.

She takes a seat next to him, joints whirring softly.  It's almost too dark to see, but he catches the glimpse of the lights from her body armor plating.  "Nice eye," she says.

"Thanks?" It comes out like a question, like he doesn't know if it's sarcasm or not.

~~It's not.~~

"Does it come with any special features?"

"Not that I'm aware of."

They sit in silence for a minute before Cryptor stands. "Why are you here?"

She stands as well, her armor illuminating the shape of her hands outstretched in front of her placatingly. "Woah, I'm not here to attack you in your vulnerable sulky state or whatever."

He grunts at the accusation.

"--but I think I should tell you what that eye of yours really is."

Cryptor squints at her, immediately suspicious.  If he has to be honest, he doesn't really trust any of the ninja.  They're too smart, too agile. He feels like they can turn on him any second, and he knows at least two of them hate him enough for that.

\- Yet, he can't help trusting them anyway. -

"C'mon, you can trust me right?"

"You don't trust me," he points out.  "Why should I trust you?"

"Fair point." She unsheaths her sword, and Cryptor can see the reflection of her armor in the blade.

"The hell--?"

She charges him and he quickly whips out his own katanas to counter her attack.  It's so dark, he can barely see. The first blow misses him by inches and he leaps backwards, mind’s eye mapping out the roof as she swings again.

“Nya? What the fuck are you doing?”

She doesn’t answer him. Her eyes aren’t glowing, which means she isn’t possessed, yet her attacks are fierce, like she’s attacking someone from The Crystal. 

He has to admit it; he knew the nindroids didn’t trust him but he didn’t know Nya of all people would go this far. He blocks a particularly heavy blow and nearly slides off the edge of the roof from the sheer force of it. He doesn’t want to hurt her, and he can’t just jump off the roof in the dark. He can only hope that someone inside the house hears them and comes to investigate. 

Her sword slices so close to his body that he can actually hear it whistle past him and after judging her distance by the light on her armor, he leaps forward, for once going in offense. She parries easily and the momentum drives him forward to land in the center of the roof. 

She mutters something and the lights on her chest disappear.  He can hear her still, and uses it to judge her distance. He dodges a swipe, then another, but the next one pierces his arm and he staggers away. He can feel blood seeping through his clothes and Nya takes his distraction and slams him backwards, pinning him to the rooftop. 

Something feels weird, like his mechanical eye is trying to leap out of his skull and he winces as the pain intensifies before everything suddenly comes into clear focus. He can see the determined scowl on Nya’s face, the outline of her against the blackened sky, and even the shapes of rooftops of buildings nearby. It’s so sudden that he freezes in place. 

Nya studies him for a moment and when his eyes meet hers, she gets off of him and reaches down to help him up. He lets himself be pulled to his feet, unsure of what is going on. 

“Your mechanical eye is built to sustain androids,” Nya explains. “Pixal just modified it to fit to you as a human. It still holds the same abilities as if an android was to use it, but it takes certain concentration and emotions to unlock each one.”

“So,” Cryptor struggles to find the correct words. “I have night vision.”

She nods, grinning, before her gaze drops to his injured arm. “You might want to get that patched up.”

He rolls his eyes at her before leaving the rooftop, wondering how she knew so much about his eye. 

Nya watches him leave, and he just misses her turn away, eyes suddenly glowing yellow. She lifts her arm and speaks into it: “One down,” before leaping off the rooftop into the darkness. 


End file.
